Most rural Indians have no access to any reliable dental advice. Many are illiterate. Most can’t afford smart-phones or data, Internet access lags and is slow and unreliable.

But 80% of households have access to a basic feature phone.

Analyzing calls to a live help-line staffed by dentists in 2011 had revealed that 91% of oral problems could be addressed by answering 30 questions relating to seven broad categories of dental care.

‘Pocket Dentist’s’ idea is to automate professional oral care advice, and make it accessible on-demand from every mobile phone.

Villagers learn about Pocket Dentist from hand-painted murals, mobile voice ads, or community health workers.

They access Pocket Dentist free using the popular ‘missed call’ mechanism. Then they are prompted to describe their question or problem.

Voice recognition technology scans the call for key words in multiple accents and dialects of Hindi. These key words are used to identify 30 common oral health questions relating to 7 broad areas, and deliver the best advice for individual problems.

For less common queries, callers are connected to an actual professional dentist for more personalized advice.

Pocket Dentist is live in two media-dark provinces of rural India, giving over 6 million access to reliable dental advice for the first time.

Research conducted by KANTAR IMRB reported positive results for Colgate among people who interacted with Pocket Dentist (vs a control group).

o 95% callers completely satisfied with the solution provided by Pocket Dentist

o +40% points uplift in Colgate’s imagery as an expert in oral care

o +48% points uplift in Colgate’s imagery as a brand recommended by dentist

o +21% points uplift in purchase intent for Colgate

o +14% points uplift in top-of-mind awareness for Colgate

Colgate also reinforced its position as India’s Most Trusted Brand as per the survey conducted by leading business daily Economics Times of India.

Above all, while ‘teeth saved’ and ‘diseases prevented’ are unquantifiable, Pocket Dentist is giving millions of rural Indians access to reliable dental advice for the first time, for free and one missed call away.